HC Deb 20 May 1901 vol 94 cc592-3
SIR JOHN LENG (Dundee)

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he will lay upon the Table of the House a memorandum from the Department of Agriculture in Canada protesting against the continuance of the embargo on the admission of Canadian live cattle into this country; and whether, since that embargo was imposed, there has been one case of pleuro-pneumonia in the 800,000 Canadian cattle landed at British ports.

The following Question (36) also stood on the Paper—

CAPTAIN SINCLAIR (Forfarshire)

To ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether His Majesty's Government and the Board of Agriculture have received and considered the memorandum recently announced as despatched by, and containing the protest of, the Government of the Dominion of Canada against the continued exclusion from British ports of Canadian live cattle; if so, whether he can now state the substance of the reply or indicate the policy of His Majesty's Government; and whether papers will be laid upon the Table.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. HANBURY,) Preston

Perhaps I may answer this and Question 36 at the same time. No such memorandum has as yet been received. There were various cases of pleuro-pneumonia between the imposition of the embargo in 1893 and the legislation of 1896. Since that time no cases have been discovered, but, of course, there has not been the same necessity to make the same close examination of the lungs of slaughtered animals.